Ryan, Kay

Ryan, Kay
▪ 2009

born Sept. 27, 1945, San Jose, Calif.

 Quintessentially American poet Kay Ryan, who wrote punchy, wry verses about commonplace things with consummate craft, humour, and intelligence, in 2008 was named the 16th U.S. poet laureate. Her lines and verses were short and suggested Asian forms to many readers. She excelled at using words precisely and reveled in internal rhyme, slant rhyme, alliteration, and other wordplay; some critics were reminded of the verse of Emily Dickinson. Unlike most of her contemporaries, Ryan rarely wrote in the first person.

      Though Ryan generally described herself as an “outsider,” she was not unknown. She produced six books; was published regularly in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Review of Books, Poetry, and Paris Review; and won major grants and prizes, including the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2004), three Pushcart Prizes, and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

      Ryan grew up in a succession of small towns in California's Central Valley, where her father worked at a variety of jobs (including oil well driller, chromium miner, and Christmas-tree salesman), and her mother was a part-time grade-school teacher. Ryan enrolled at Antelope Valley College, Lancaster, Calif., but soon transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where she earned a B.A. (1967) and an M.A. (1968) in English. She moved to northern California in 1971 and took a part-time job teaching remedial English at the College of Marin, Kentfield, Calif., a course she still taught in 2008. Having written poetry since age 19 but still unsure of her true calling, in 1976 Ryan embarked on a cross-country bicycle trip. High in the Colorado Rockies, it came to her that she could pursue a career as a writer. For the next 20 years, she laboured in virtual literary isolation, but she gradually began attracting notice from readers, critics, and the mainstream poetry establishment.

      Nonetheless, at least until 2008 Ryan lived the quiet life of a community college teacher. The poem “Hide and Seek” from Ryan's collection The Niagara River (2005) might reveal something of the poet's mindset: “It's hard not / to jump out / instead of / waiting to be / found. It's / hard to be / alone so long / and then hear / someone come / around. It's / like some form / of skin's developed / in the air / that, rather / than have torn, / you tear.”

Charles Trumbull

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Kay Ryan — Infobox Writer name = Kay Ryan imagesize = 180px birthdate = Birth year and age|1945 birthplace = San Jose, California, USA occupation = Poet, educator nationality = United States period = 1970s present genre = subject = movement = notableworks …   Wikipedia

  • Kay Ryan — (21 de septiembre de 1945) es una poeta y pedagoga estadounidense. Ganadora del Premio Pulitzer 2011 en la categoría de «Poesía» por su antología The Best of It: New and Selected Poems, hasta 2011 había publicado siete libros de poesía. Ryan se… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy 2011 — Sieger England Ronnie O’Sullivan Austragungsort South West Snooker Academy, Gloucester Eröffnung 5. Oktober 2011 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Kay Thorpe — Born 1935 (age 75–76) England, UK Pen name Kay Thorpe Occupation Novelist Nationality British Period 1968–2006 …   Wikipedia

  • Kay Ryan — Ryan im Jahr 2008 Kay Ryan (* 1945 in San José, Kalifornien) ist eine US amerikanische Dichterin, die die 16. Poet Laureate der USA seit September 2008 ist.[1][2] Sie ist die Nachfolgerin von Charles Simic. Sie studierte an der University of… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Kay Francis — Escena de The Feminine Touch (1941) Nombre real Katharine Edwina Gibbs Nacimiento 13 de enero de 1905 …   Wikipedia Español

  • Ryan (Familienname) — Ryan ist ein Familienname irischer Herkunft.[1] Bekannte Namensträger Inhaltsverzeichnis A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ryan Katz — is a professional wrestler under the name GQ Money who became famous as part of the Xtreme Pro Wrestling promotion where he was the manager of Joey Munoz alias Kaos of The Enterprise.He was part of the Christopher Daniels stable in Total Nonstop… …   Wikipedia

  • Ryan Cayabyab — Infobox musical artist Name = Ryan Cayabyab Img capt = Img size = Landscape = Background = non vocal instrumentalist Birth name = Raymundo Cipriano Pujante Cayabyab Alias = Mr. C Born = birth date and age|1954|05|04 Died = Origin = Quezon City,… …   Wikipedia

  • Kay Francis — Infobox actor name = Kay Francis imagesize = 230px caption = in the trailer for The Feminine Touch (fy|1941) birthdate = birth date|1905|1|13|mf=y birthplace = Oklahoma City, Oklahoma deathdate = death date and age|1968|8|26|1905|1|13|mf=y… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”